


Tough Little Boys

by WeirdyMcWeirderton



Series: Avery Series [1]
Category: Leverage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-29
Updated: 2014-06-29
Packaged: 2018-02-06 18:14:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 11,600
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1867599
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WeirdyMcWeirderton/pseuds/WeirdyMcWeirderton
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The team has a new client, but what Eliot finds out about her will completely change and affect the job and his life. Now the problem lies with is what he's going to do with this information.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> It took me a really long time to finally find a start to this story that I liked (5 attempts to be exact), but I think I really like how this one is going. I hope everyone enjoys it!

Nate and Sophie are sitting at one of the booths in McRory’s Bar and Grill, waiting for their new client. It was a younger girl, from what Nate could make out on the phone. She sounded upset and a little lost too. The door opens and the two of them look up. A girl, of about sixteen, with long brown wavy hair walks in. She looks around the room and Nate raises his hand to catch her attention. She notices and walks over to meet them.  
“You Nate Ford?” she asks in a Southern accent.  
“Yes I am. You must be Avery?” Nate asks. The girl nods and glances at Sophie. “This is my co-worker, Sophie.”  
“It’s nice to meet you,” Sophie says in her English accent.  
“Yeah, here too,” Avery says, feeling awkward.  
“Please sit,” Nate says, motioning to the booth across from them. Avery takes a sit and her blue eyes look at them. “So, on the phone you said you needed our help?”  
“Yeah. My mom just died of cancer,” Avery says, her voice void of emotion. Sophie can’t help but pick up on it.  
“Oh, I’m sorry,” Sophie says.  
“It’s fine. I’m fine,” Avery says as if she’s rehearsed it in the mirror numerous times. “But it was the hospitals fault.”  
“What do you mean?” Nate asks.  
“They told my mom they had a experimental procedure to help her. They took her for everything she was worth,”Avery says. “They told her about the procedure. Mom said she’d try it and instead of doing what they said they would, the hospital took her money and pretended to do the procedure.”  
“How do you know they didn’t do it?” Nate asks. Sophie gives him a look.  
“What he means to say is, are you sure the procedure just didn’t work?” Sophie says in a calm voice.  
“Because, I…” Avery starts, but stops, hesitant to tell them anything. Sophie picks up on this.  
“Listen, we, the two of us, the rest of our team? We’re thieves, anything you did isn’t going to look bad to us,” Sophie assures Avery, knowing the only way to get the full story is to be completely truthful with her. Avery gives Nate and Sophie a look, but agrees with what Sophie has just said.  
“I broke in to Dr. Jameson’s office. He was my mom’s doctor for the procedure. I looked for her file. She didn’t even have one. In fact, I didn’t even see anything around that said he was doing anything with an experimental procedure,” Avery explains.  
“Did you check his computer?” Nate asks. Avery looks at him.  
“Yes, I checked his damn computer. There was nothing on it,” Avery growls, reminding Nate and Sophie of Eliot. “I even went so far as to calling the FDA. They’ve never even heard of the treatment.”  
“We can get you the money back they took from your mom,” Nate says.  
“That’s not it,” Avery says, “They might’ve killed my mom. While she was with them doing nothing, she could’ve been trying something else. And actually been getting the treatment she needed. And what if they do this to someone else?”  
“Don’t worry, we’ll help you,” Sophie says. Nate looks at her. “We will.”  
“Thanks,” Avery says, getting up to leave.  
“Avery, dear,” Sophie calls out. Avery turns around to look at her. “How did you get here?”  
“Um…I walked?” Avery says, confused at the question.  
“No, I mean to Boston. You’re what? Only sixteen?” Sophie asks.  
“Yeah, so,” Avery says in defense.   
“Where’s your father?” Sophie asks.  
“Don’t know? Never knew him,” Avery says.  
“So, how did you get here?” Sophie asks again.  
“I took a bus,” Avery says.  
“You?” Sophie asks, “You came alone?”  
“Yeah. It’s no big deal. Kind of been on my own for awhile now,” Avery says, shrugging her shoulders and turning to leave.  
“Where are you staying?” Sophie asks. Avery turns back around.  
“Uh…I was just gonna go get a room at a hotel,” Avery says.  
“You know, they don’t usually let you get a room without a credit card,” Sophie points out, “And the ones that don’t, aren’t the best places for a sixteen year old to be staying by herself.”  
Nate looks at Sophie, trying to figure out where Sophie is going with all of this. Deep down he already knows, but he is hoping he is dead wrong.  
“It’s not like I have a choice,” Avery says.  
“Come upstairs with us. We’ll give you a place to stay,” Sophie says. Nate looks at her giving her a look that says, ‘Are you out of your mind?’.   
“No, really, it’s okay. I’ll be fine,” Avery says.  
“You shouldn’t be by yourself in the middle of Boston. You don’t realize how many crazy people there are out there,” Sophie insists.  
“What? Like thieves?” Avery asks, looking pointedly at them. Nate smirks, hiding a chuckle. Sophie scowls slightly.  
“I know it’s hard because we’re pretty much strangers, but just trust us, please?” Sophie says, “I don’t want to see you get hurt.”  
“I can take care of myself,” Avery says, “Trust me.”  
“Fine then do it for me,” Sophie says. Avery watches her, finally sighing in defeat.  
“Fine, I’ll go,” she says as if she’s being put out.  
“Good,” Sophie says, “You’ll just love the team.”  
Sophie grabs Avery’s hand and leads her to the back of the bar to where the elevator is. Nate shakes his head and follows the two of them, already knowing what the others are going to say.  
“They’re going to hate this,” Nate says, feeling a sense of déjà vu at the words.

 

“Are you crazy?!” Eliot growls at Sophie.  
“She was by herself,” Sophie argues, “What was I supposed to do?”  
Nate stands off to the side and watches the proceeding argument. Hardison and Parker are standing next to Eliot. They had left Avery in the living room while they escaped to the hallway.  
“Oh, I don’t know, maybe let her go,” Hardison says.  
“She’s sixteen years old. Where was she going to go? The only places she would be able to get a room are no place for a girl like her to be,” Sophie says.  
“Where are we going to put her?” Parker asks, “She can’t really stay with me.”  
“She can’t stay with me either. I’ve got computers and stuff everywhere, and….” Hardison says, trying to find a logical reason.  
Sophie rolls her eyes and looks at Eliot. Eliot glares at her.  
“No way,” he says, “You created this mess, she can stay with you.”  
“I’m just thinking safety wise,” Sophie says, “I mean who safer to stay with that you.”  
“It’s not happening,” Eliot says as the door to their headquarters open up. The team turns around and sees Avery standing there.  
“Really guys, it’s not that big of a deal,” Avery says, “I didn’t even want to do this. I only did it to get her to shut up. I’m fine just going to the motel down the road.”  
“What?! Sunrise?” Eliot exclaims, “Are you nuts?! No way are you going there!”  
Avery raises an eyebrow.  
“Okay,” she says slowly, “Well, then I’ll just find a motel not there.”  
“Where?” Eliot asks.  
“What about the place a few blocks over,” Avery says.   
“No. Nuh-uh,” Eliot says, shaking his head, “That’s almost as bad as Sunrise.”  
“Well, you mind telling me where I can go?” Avery asks frustrated.   
“I’ll find someplace,” Eliot says, heading inside the apartment. The team looks at each other and follows him inside. Avery doesn’t really know what has just happened but follows them into the living room nonetheless, shutting the door behind her.

 

“You really didn’t have to let me stay here,” Avery says, setting her bag on Eliot’s floor. “I can take care of myself.”  
“I don’t doubt that,” Eliot says, studying her. He had been doing it all afternoon and evening. She had seemed very familiar to him, and she definitely held herself like she knew how to look out for herself. And after hearing her story via Hardison and Nate, he had started growing a soft spot for the girl.   
“Why’d you let me stay here anyway? From what I heard, this was never gonna happen,” Avery calls Eliot out.  
“Yeah, well…” Eliot says without really answering the question. “So, you came up here from?”  
“Texas,” Avery answers while Eliot begins sifting through the fridge to find something for them to eat.  
“You came up to Boston from Texas by yourself? Where’s your dad?” Eliot asks, curious as to why he would let her travel this far to the city by herself.  
“When I find out I’ll let ya know,” Avery says, sitting on the stool at the eating bar. Eliot pulls out leftover lasagna and, setting it on the counter, looks at Avery.  
“You don’t know where your dad is?” Eliot asks.  
“I don’t know my dad period,” Avery scoffs.  
“Oh,” Eliot says, opening the container. “Lasagna okay with you?”  
“Yeah, that’s fine,” Avery says, “I mean , mom talked about him. Especially when she was really drugged up from the pain medication.”  
“Yeah?” Eliot says, not wanting to push her to talk but willing to listen if she wanted to. Avery still felt really familiar to him.  
“Yeah,” Avery says, biting her thumbnail. “I guess he was in the military. By the time she found out she was pregnant, he had left to go overseas. She tried writing him, but I guess he was in some sort of special forces and at the time they couldn’t get any mail. It got returned.”  
“I know the feeling,” Eliot says cryptically, watching her bite her fingernail as the lasagna heats up.   
“And she always said I looked and acted a lot like him,” Avery says.   
“Like what?” Eliot asks, genuinely interested and seeing that Avery wanted to talk to someone about this.  
“Like my eyes. She said my dad had the same blue eyes I have. And his hair. And she always said I had his temper and that if she saw him again she’d kick his ass for giving me that,” Avery says, smiling. Eliot smiles slightly himself. The microwave beeps and Eliot pulls out the two plates and sets one in front of Avery and one in front of himself, sitting in the stool opposite her. Avery takes a bite and her eyes widen in surprise.  
“This is awesome,” Avery explains, looking up at Eliot, “Did you make this?”  
“Yeah,” Eliot says chuckling. He looks up and this time, he really looks at her. Her blue eyes did look familiar. As well as everything else. “Hardison and Nate never said your mothers’ name. What was it?”  
“Uh…Brie Hannigan,” Avery says. Eliot startles. “What?”  
“Uh…how old are you again?” he asks.  
“Um…I just turned sixteen,” Avery answers, confused at Eliot’s sudden change in demeanor. Eliot chuckles nervously. Avery looks at him curiously.  
“She ever tell you anything else about your dad?”Eliot asks.  
“Well, um…she did mention one thing,” Avery says hesitantly.  
“Yeah? What’s that?” Eliot asks, watching her closely.   
“She said she went to school with him,” Avery says, watching Eliot just as closely.  
“Right,” Eliot says, nodding his head, “I gotta make a phone call.”  
Eliot gets off his chair and walks down the hall to his room. Avery watches him leave, completely confused by the sudden change of events.


	2. Chapter 2

“Hello?”  
“Hardison? Can you hack in to personal records?” Eliot asks once he’s closed his bedroom door behind him.  
“Are you seriously asking me that question?” Hardison asks.  
“I need you to hack in to Avery’s records for me,” Eliot says.  
“Why?” Hardison asks, confused at the random order, because that’s exactly what it was.  
“Just do it,” Eliot says, annoyed.  
“All right, I’m going,” Hardison says, typing a few keys on his computer. Eliot waits impatiently until Hardison finally states that he’s in.  
“Pull up her birth certificate,” Eliot says.  
“What? Why am I pulling up her birth certificate?” Hardison asks.  
“Hardison,” Eliot growls. Hardison sighs. He types in a few more keys and pulls up Avery’s birth certificate.   
“I still don’t see why I need to pull up her…Oh my god,” Hardison says, cutting himself off.  
“What?” Eliot asks impatiently, “What does it say?”  
“Uh, Eliot?”  
“Dammit Hardison! What does it say?”  
“Your name is on this birth certificate,” Hardison says, staring at the image on his computer screen. “Under father.”  
Eliot drops down on to his bed and stares at his closed door, the cell phone still by his ear. What the hell is he gonna do with a kid? With a daughter? He doesn’t know the first thing about raising a kid. Well, he guesses she’s already grown so not really a whole lot of raising to do. That’s where the problem lies. She ain’t gonna just accept him as her father. She’s lived without him for sixteen years already.  
“Eliot?” Hardison says in to the phone, but receives no answer. “Eliot!”  
“What?” Eliot says grumpily, jerking back to reality.  
“Dude, you have a kid!” Hardison exclaims.  
“No, really Hardison!” Eliot yells.  
“I’m just saying,” Hardison replies.  
“Well, don’t,” Eliot grumpily says. “I gotta go.”  
With that, Eliot hangs up the phone, putting it in his pocket. Eliot sits on his bed and stares at the blank space before him, not knowing what to do or what to think. I have a kid! his head screams. Now all I have to do is go out there and tell Avery who I am. Yeah, that’ll be easy.

 

Eliot walks out to the kitchen. He stands in the doorway, watching Avery wash the dishes. He isn’t sure if he should say anything to her. His job was dangerous, and his job before this was even more dangerous. He had many enemies and if even one of them found out he had a daughter? Well, he didn’t want to think about what they’d do. On the other hand, the kid just lost her mom. Who else was going to take care of her? Avery feels someone watching her and she shuts off the water having just finished the dishes from dinner. She turns around and sees Eliot standing there.  
“Everything all right?” she asks, looking at him curiously.   
“Uh…yeah,” Eliot says, stepping away from the wall he was leaning on. “Listen, we need to talk.”  
“Um…okay,” Avery says, not sure what is going on, but sits down on one of the stools. Eliot sits across from her, looking at his clasped hands in front of him. He takes a deep breath and looks up at her.  
“You…” he begins, but freezes.  
“I what?” Avery asks. Eliot watches her for a second.  
“You’re coming with us when we go down to Texas. No reason for you to try to find a way back down there if we’re headed down there anyways,” Eliot says. Avery studies him, knowing there’s something else, but nods her head in understanding.  
“Okay,” she says.  
“It’s getting late. You should get to bed, we have an early start tomorrow,” Eliot says, then nods towards his room, “You can take my bed, I’ll sleep on the couch.”  
“No, I can’t do that…” Avery says.  
“Yes you can. Besides I’ll feel like an ass if you have to sleep on the couch,” Eliot says. Avery sighs.  
“All right, fine. I’ll sleep in the bed,” she says, getting up from the stool and, grabbing her bag, heads back to Eliot’s room. Eliot sighs, knowing he is in way over his head.

 

Eliot is sitting in his seat on the airplane, Avery sitting next to him, fast asleep. She resituates herself and her head ends up sliding down to rest on his shoulder. Eliot looks down at her and a small smile appears on his face. Someone sits down next to him on his right and Eliot looks over and sees Nate.  
“So, I talked to Hardison,” Nate says.  
“Yeah?” Eliot returns.  
“You tell her?” Nate asks.  
“No, not yet,” Eliot says. Nate looks at him, waiting for him to explain. Eliot looks back at Avery. “It’s a lose, lose situation for us Nate. If I don’t tell her, we never get to know each other. If I do tell her, there’s more of a chance something bad’ll happen to her.”  
“Or…” Nate says slowly, “it’s a win, win situation.”  
“What do you mean?” Eliot says, looking at Nate with a confused expression.  
“You don’t tell her and she’s safer, but then the two of you will never get to know each other. She’ll never be a part of your life. You tell her and you’ll have that, but there’s a greater chance she can get hurt. But, she’ll be with you so you’d cancel out that ‘greater chance’,” Nate points out. Eliot looks over at him and Nate gets up and goes back to sit with Sophie, leaving Eliot to think about what he said. Eliot looks back down at Avery and sighs, resting his head on the headrest.  
“Dammit.”


	3. Chapter 3

The team and Avery exit the airport and head to the cars they rented for their stay. Nate and Sophie head to one of the cars while Eliot heads to the other. Nate looks over at Eliot, giving him a look.  
Eliot sighs inwardly, but then looks over at Avery who has meandered over in his direction.  
“You have someplace we can take you? Who are you staying with?” he asks. Avery looks over at him, looking slightly crestfallen at the idea that she wasn’t going to be staying with them.  
“Yeah,” she says, “My mom’s friend.”  
“Okay,” Eliot says, nodding to the car. Avery makes her way to the car and climbs in the front seat. Nate looks over at Hardison and Parker as Sophie climbs into the passenger seat of their car.  
“You two come with us,” he says.   
“But…” Parker begins to argue, but Hardison begins pulling her towards Nate’s car, leaning in towards her ear.  
“Just get in the car Parker, we’ll explain later,” he mutters. Parker gives him a confused look, but climbs in to the backseat anyway, Hardison following after her. Nate waves to Eliot and then takes off in the car towards their hotel. Eliot starts up the car and looks over at Avery. She’s slumped in the seat and staring out the window, looking slightly depressed.  
“Where we headed?” he asks.  
“Make a right out of the parking lot,” she says, “Then a left onto Birgard road.”  
Eliot opens his mouth as if to say something but then clamps it shut. He pulls out of the parking space and follows the directions she gave him. 

 

“So, I’m sure your mom’s friend will be happy to see you back,” Eliot says, not knowing what to say but needing to break the awkward silence that has arisen in the car.   
“Yeah, especially since I didn’t tell her,” Avery says to her window. The car swerves slightly and Eliot’s head whips around to face her.  
“What?! You didn’t tell her where you were going? Or that you were leaving?” he asks. Avery shrugs her shoulders. “Avery…”  
“What?” she asks defensively, interrupting his train of thought. “Why should I care? It’s not like I have any real family around anymore.”  
Eliot sighs, glancing at the road before looking at Avery again. Her jaw is clenched and she’s staring out her window, refusing to look at him. Eliot looks back at the road and takes a deep breath, wondering if he should say anything to her.  
“Doesn’t mean people don’t care about you,” Eliot says. Avery snorts.  
“Right, because people who really care about you up and die on you,” Avery says sarcastically, “Or never show up in your life.”  
Eliot flinches slightly at the anger in her tone on the last comment. Maybe I should tell her. She obviously wants to know who her dad is. While Eliot debates this, Avery puts up her wall again, chiding herself for letting it down even for the brief moment she did. She doesn’t know why, but she feels safe with Eliot; and she trusts him.   
“It’s up here on the right,” Avery says. Eliot looks ahead of them and sees a driveway on their right. He pulls into it and drives down the long driveway until they get to a farmhouse. A woman in her mid-thirties walks out onto the porch to see who has arrived. “It’s not too late to make a quick escape.”  
Eliot snorts, smirking at the comment. Instead, he unbuckles his seatbelt and climbs out of the vehicle. He hears Avery sigh from inside the car, but she climbs out of the car as well. The woman looks at Eliot curiously, but then she recognizes Avery and her eyes grow wide.  
“I’ll be damned,” she says, “Avery? We thought…”  
“I’m fine,” Avery says shortly, grabbing her bag from the back seat of the car.  
“Where were you?” the woman says, glancing at Eliot, studying him over.  
“Boston,” Avery says. The woman’s head spins to look at her.  
“Boston?!”  
“I was getting help,” Avery states. The woman looks back at Eliot. Eliot steps forward and holds a hand out to her.  
“Good morning ma’am. My name’s Eliot,” he says. The woman looks at him, but accepts his hand and shakes it.   
“Carrie,” she says, then looks over at Avery, letting go of Eliot’s hand. “Help for what?”  
“Maybe we should go inside and talk,” Eliot says to Carrie. Carrie looks at him, then back at Avery. Finally, she nods her approval and she leads them both inside. 

 

The door to the hotel room shuts and Nate looks up and sees Eliot stroll inside. He takes a seat across from Nate and rests his head on the back of the chair. Nate raises an eyebrow but continues with his work. When Eliot doesn’t come forth with any information, Nate decides to go fishing.  
“How did everything go?” he asks. Eliot grunts. “That good huh?”  
“She didn’t even tell her mom’s friend she was leaving, let alone where she was going,” Eliot says, lifting his head and leaning forward, resting his arms on his legs. “I mean, what if something happened to her?”  
“Dropping everything to help the ones’ she cares about? Hmm…sounds like someone else I know,” Nate says, not looking up from his papers. Eliot scowls.   
“That’s not the point Nate,” Eliot growls. Nate nods in agreement.  
“No, it’s not,” he says, “The point is, did you tell her?”  
Eliot goes to answer, but then snaps his mouth shut. He didn’t really have a satisfying answer to that question. He wanted to tell her, but hearing the anger in her voice when she said that one comment made him wary as to her reaction.   
“I didn’t think so,” Nate says. The rest of the team come walking in to the room the two men are in and take a seat, looking at Nate, waiting for him to give them directions. “All right, let’s go still a research center.”  
Basically, they were going to convince Eli Grate that the procedure he is using is being looked into by the feds; that it isn’t safe to use it anymore. Then, they were going to convince him that they have a new procedure that will do the same as the old one, make it seem like it is working but it’s really not. Then, they were going to frame him for illegally using the procedure and that it was his idea in the first place. Of course, not everything goes according to plan.

 

“What were you thinking going up to Boston all by yourself!” Carries yells, “You couldn’t gotten killed…or hurt!”  
“I didn’t,” Avery says, annoyed at the lecture.  
“And not only that, but you hook up with a stranger!? What if he was a criminal? A thief? A murderer? Or worse?” Carrie continues to yell. Avery stifles a laugh, knowing he was a criminal, was a thief. She didn’t know if he had killed before, but if she was truthful, she’d say it wouldn’t really bother her too much. Which was a little scary, because it should. Something was really wrong with her.   
“It’s not that big of a deal,” Avery says, shrugging it off. Carrie looks at her, bewildered, angry, frustrated, annoyed? You name it, she was it all.  
“What is wrong with you?!” Carrie yells.  
“Why do you care? It’s not like you’re my mom!” Avery yells back, grabbing her coat and making her way to the door.  
“Where are you going?”  
“Out,” Avery says, slamming the door behind her. She knew where she needed to go, and she sure didn’t want company when she was there.

 

“Mr. Grate,” a young blonde woman in her mid-twenties says as a forty something year old man rounds the corner.  
“Yes, Natalie?” Eli says.  
“There is a couple of FBI here,” she says, pointing to his office. Eli Grate looks up and sees a young blonde woman, about Natalie’s age and an African American man the around the same age also.  
“What do they want?” he asks, looking back at Natalie. She shakes her head.  
“I’m not sure, but they were asking me a lot of questions about the experimental procedure you do,” Natalie says.  
“Dammit,” Eli says under his breath looking towards the office then looks back over at Natalie, “Thank You Natalie.”  
Natalie nods her head and walks off. Eli pulls out his phone and dials a number, putting the phone to his ear.   
“Hey, we’ve got a problem. No, the feds are here…asking questions about the procedure,” he says, pausing for a moment, listening to the other person, “I can take of things here. You need to find the papers she took that could incriminate us. If her daughter finds them first and brings it to them, we’re done.”  
Eli listens for a moment longer then says good bye and hangs up the phone, putting it back in his suit pocket. He looks back over to his office and steels his gaze. Straightening himself up, he puts on a smile and walks down the hall to where they wait.


	4. Chapter 4

Avery walks up to the big green house and stares at it, willing herself to go in. She hadn’t been in it since her mother had died except to grab her belongings and she wasn’t sure if she’d be able to do this, but she knows she has to. She takes a deep breath and slowly makes her way up the steps and to the door. She pulls out her key and, unlocking the door, enter the house. Shutting the door behind her and looks around the entryway. Walking through the house, Avery finds her hand sliding along surfaces, lightly touching certain object, looking at pictures. Avery winds up back to the staircase and looks up it. She breaths out and begins to ascend the staircase. At the top, she stops in front of a closed door and stares at it. Her gaze drops to the door handle and she reaches out, slowly turning the handle and opening the door. She enter the room and closes the door slightly behind her. She looks around the room, not wanting to touch anything for fear of it breaking. Avery walks over to the bedside table and carefully lifts up a framed picture. In it is her and a woman with brown hair, brown eyes, and a smile that lights up the room. Avery smiles at it, her eyes misting over.  
“Hey mama,” she says, taking in a stuttering breath. Avery sits down on her mothers’ bed and continues to look at the picture. “Not real sure what I’m doing here. And I’m talking in life not the house.” Avery forces a laugh, sniffling. “I just don’t know what to do. You were always there to help me. And now… Now I have no one. I don’t even have a damn daddy to help me through this. Just me. And hell…you know how awesome I am when it comes to letting my feeling out.”  
Avery sniffles again as she brings a hand up and strokes the picture of her mom. A tear falls down her cheek and she forcefully wipes it away. She takes in another stuttering breath and another tear falls away.   
“Why? Why mama? Why did you leave me?” she asks, more tears falling down her face. Avery’s face goes from being broken to being angry. “I can’t do this alone! Why did you leave me?!”  
Avery throws the picture at the wall and it breaks, glass falling to the floor. Avery drops onto the bed, tears falling down her face as she cries. She brings her knees up to her chest and lies down on the bed, curling herself up in to a ball. 

 

“Dammit Hardison!” Eliot yells as the two of them and Parker enter the hotel room. “You can’t force the car into gear, you’ll ruin the engine!”  
“Well, what was I supposed to do Eliot? It wasn’t moving,” Hardison argues.  
“Well, you don’t’ shove it into gear!” Eliot growls back.  
“Hey, hey, hey. What’s going on?” Nate asks, holding his hands up in confusion.   
“Hardison insisted on driving but he can’t drive stick,” Eliot complains.  
“I can to,” Hardison says, “This one was just a newer model.”  
“It’s stick shift Hardison! They’re all the same!” Eliot yells back.  
“All right,” Nate says, putting a stop to the argument, sighing to himself. Eliot glares at Hardison who returns it with a look that says, “It wasn’t my fault” and mouthing “Don’t look at me like that.” “Hardison!”  
Hardison looks over at Nate.  
“What?”  
“Check Grate’s financials. See if he’s set up the money for mine and Sophie’s offer,” Nate says. Hardison shoots Eliot another look before he begins typing into his computer.   
“Man, I’m gonna wipe that look off your face,” Eliot growls to Hardison.   
“Eliot,” Nate says.  
“What?” Eliot asks, glaring at Hardison still. Nate sighs. Sometimes between Eliot, Hardison, and Parker it’s as if he and Sophie are raising three kids.   
“All right, Grate has withdrew the money from his business account. Looks like he’s taken the bait,” Hardison says.  
“Of course he has,” Nate says, “Now, we need to convince him our procedure is real.”  
“How do we do that?” Parker asks.  
“We steal a research center,” Nate says, glancing at Sophie. “What did you three find out from Grate’s house?”  
“Well, I copied all of his files from his computer so I’m going to go through that,” Hardison says proudly. Eliot gives him a look.  
“Awesome!” Eliot says mockingly, “Would you like a medal?”  
“You know you don’t realize how much work I do,” Hardison counters.  
“All you did was stick the little thingy into the computer, press a few buttons, and take the thingy out,” Eliot argues back.  
“All right,” Sophie says, stepping in. “Parker did you find anything?”  
“I cracked his safe and found a whole bunch of files. I made copies of everything,” she answers, setting the pile of papers on the table.  
“Good,” Nate says.  
“Eliot?” Hardison asks knowingly. Eliot glares at him.  
“I took out the goons so we could get in the damn place,” Eliot growls.   
“Well, let’s get going on looking through this stuff,” Sophie says, breaking the two of them up before Eliot hits him. 

 

It’s midnight and the team is actively searching through everything they found at Eli Grate’s house. Eliot and Hardison are shooting looks at each other periodically when they think no one is looking, including each other. Sophie and Nate notice anyways, but ignore it. They’ll get over it by morning. Suddenly, Eliot’s phone goes off and he pulls it out of his pocket and looks at the caller ID. He looks slightly confused but answers the phone anyways.  
“Avery?”

 

Thump.  
“Jesus, Mark. Watch where the hell you’re going.”  
Avery’s eyes snap open. She holds her breath and listens intently. She hears numerous footsteps downstairs. She slowly, quietly gets up out of the bed and makes her way to the door. She presses her ear to it and listens for anything else.  
“What are we looking for anyways, Rob,” a man asks, different from the first.  
“Papers,” Rob, the first man to talk says.  
“Papers for what?” another man asks.  
“Don’t you guys listen to anything the boss says. The Bitch stole papers that can land him in jail. We need to find them before the daughter does and sends them to the damn police,” Rob says. Avery hears foots steps enter the living room.  
“I checked the kitchen,” he says, “Didn’t find anything.”  
“What do we do now?” the third man says.  
“Oh, I don’t Greg, maybe look someplace else,” the fourth man says irritated. There is a chuckle.  
“Why can’t these two be more like you Jack?” Rob asks, “Come on, let’s head upstairs.”  
Avery quickly steps back from the door, knowing she was in trouble. She pulls out her cell phone and hits a button. She hears the men begin up the stairs.   
“Avery?” Eliot asks over the phone.  
“Eliot,” Avery whispers, “There are some men here. And they’re looking for something.”  
“What? Where?” Eliot asks. Avery turns around and stubs her toe on the leg of the bed resulting in a loud thump.   
“Dammit,” she growls, grabbing her toe.  
“What? You all right?” Eliot asks.  
“Hold on,” Rob says. The group stops. Avery freezes, not answering Eliot’s question. “You hear that?”  
“That thump?” Jack asks, “Yeah.”  
“Someone’s here,” Rob says. The group begins heading the rest of the way up the stairs.  
“Avery? What’s going on? Where are you?” Eliot asks, beginning to worry.  
“This is just great,” Avery mutters, limping to the adjoining closet and sliding the doors open.   
“Avery!” Eliot yells into the phone.  
“I’m at my house. There’s four guys here looking for papers. They know I’m here,” Avery whispers, shutting the closet door and moving to the back of the closet. She hears the door to both her mom’s old room and hers’ next door open. Avery holds her breath, keeping the phone to her ear.   
“Hold on, I’m coming,” Eliot assures, “Go someplace safe.”  
Avery hears Eliot hang up the phone and she puts it on vibrate, seeing way to many movies where the stupid people leave their phones on and that’s how they get caught. She hears the men searching through the rooms, knocking things over and moving things around. She silently moves over so she isn’t in her mom’s closet or her own, just in time to have to closet doors open. The men in her room don’t have to look too much; all of her clothes are gone.   
“Nothing here,” shouts Rob, shutting the closet door. Avery holds her breath, knowing if the other two guys in her mom’s room search farther in to the closet they’ll find her. She sees the clothes begin to move as they begin shoving them out of the way. In the background she hears the Rob and another guy go down the hall to the guest bedroom. I might as well work on the element of surprise before they find me Avery thinks to herself.  
Just as Jack pulls aside some shirts, Avery shoots a fist out and punches him square in the nose. Jack grunts, his head flying backwards. Avery doesn’t waste any time; she flies out of the closet buries an elbow into his solar plexus. As Jack bends forward, the air being forced out of his lungs, Avery grabs the back of his head, smashing her knee into his face, jamming an elbow into his back directly afterwards. Jack collapses to the ground. Avery looks up and sees Greg charge at her. He throws a haymaker and Avery steps to the inside of the wide punch, blocking it and slamming an elbow into his sternum. Greg lets out a yell and Avery knees him in his thigh, creating a Charlie horse. As she steps down, she stomps on to his foot. Greg lets out another yelp. Avery hears footsteps coming towards her and knows she has to finish this guy fast before the others get there. She slams an upper cut into the guys’ jaw, effectively knocking him out. She quickly makes her way to the door and stands off to the side. Mark comes flying in to the room. As he does so, Avery lands a kick to his ribs, hearing it crack as he slams into the wall to his right. Avery pounces on him, punching him in the face effectively making him disoriented. She slams a couple more punches to his face, knocking him out. She stands up and turns around to face Rob only to be punched in the face, her head snapping back.   
“Holy shit,” she says, trying to get her bearing again. Her adrenaline allows her to quickly shove back the pain, but not before Rob slams her in to the wall, wrapping his hands around her neck. Avery grabs his arms and kicks him in the shin. Rob grunts, but his hold doesn’t waiver enough for her to get out. She changes tactics and shoves her two fingers into the cavity at the bottom of the front of his neck, turning her shoulder to put more pressure. Rob steps back, not liking the feeling, and his hold loosens considerably. Avery kicks Rob in the knee and he lets out a howl of pain. She slams a knee in to his face followed by a punch. Rob falls to the floor out for the count. Avery looks around, breathing heavily, the adrenaline starting to wear off now that there’s no more danger. She rubs her sore neck and gently probes her probably already bruising eye. The door downstairs slams open and footsteps are heard pounding up the stairs. Avery looks up to see Eliot slide into the doorway, taking in the scene before him.  
“Damn,” he says, looking at the unconscious men before him. “I guess you can take care of yourself.”  
“Yeah,” Avery says, grimacing slightly at her bruising face and neck. Eliot looks at her, taking in her appearance.  
“Come on, let’s get you some ice,” Eliot says, walking over to her and leading her out the door, nonchalantly checking her over for any more injuries.


	5. Chapter 5

Eliot leads Avery into the hotel room and the rest of the team look up. Sophie automatically notices the bruising and swelling eye on Avery’s face. Her eyes then take in her neck and her gaze lingers there. Avery shifts uncomfortably under the teams’ gaze. Eliot gently pushes her down onto the bed and goes to the kitchen and makes a make-shift icepack. He walks back over to Avery and places it onto her eye. Avery grabs it, holding it in place. Eliot kneels down and tilts her head up so he can get a better look at her neck, grimacing at the bruising already forming in two handprints.   
“What happened?” Nate asks from his seat at the table.   
“Four guys broke into my old house,” Avery says from under the icepack, “They were looking for information.”  
“What kind of information?” Eliot asks.  
“I heard one of them say that my mom had information on Eli Grate. Information that could get him put in jail,” Avery says. The team share a look.  
“Do you have any idea where this information is?” Nate asks.  
“No,” Avery answers, “No clue.”  
“We need to find that information before Grate does,” Nate says, then looks over at Hardison, “Start looking at financials and anything else that might give us a clue. Parker, Eliot, I need you to go back to Avery’s house and see what you can find.”  
“I wanna come too,” Avery says, jumping up from the bed.  
“No, you’re staying here,” Eliot says heading to the door, Parker following him.  
“No way,” Avery says, tossing the ice pack on to the bed behind her. Eliot gives her a look.  
“Put the ice pack on and sit down,” he says, “You don’t need to come.”  
Avery returns his look with a matching one, not backing down, and wondering where he gets off telling her what to do.  
“That’s funny,” she says, “Last I checked you had no say in what I do. It’s not like you’re my dad or anything.”  
Eliot goes to open his mouth to say something but doesn’t know what to say, looking like a fish out of water. He closes his mouth and looks at her. What was he going to say, Actually, I am you’re father. Yeah, that’ll go over well. Nate, Sophie, and Hardison look at the two of them, all of them knowing the truth. Parker stands by and watches, wondering who’s going to win the stand-off.   
“You’re not coming,” Eliot says, with finality in his tone. Avery’s jaw clenches, wanting to argue, but she respects Eliot too much. He was just trying to keep her safe, right? Unfortunately, for her, Avery wasn’t too used to being protected. She was always the one who does the protecting.   
“This guy got my mom killed. I want to help put him away for good,” Avery says, pleading with Eliot. Eliot wars with himself.  
“Is it really going to hurt if she goes to help look Eliot?” Sophie asks, “It’s not like she going to take out four armed men.”  
Eliot smirks at that and looks over at Avery, who is wearing an identical smirk. Parker notices this.  
“Does this mean she’s coming?” she asks. Eliot grunts and heads out the door, Avery following after him. Parker looks over at the rest of the team and then rushes out the door after them.  
“I call shotgun!” she yells down the hall.

 

“Parker, check around see if you can find a safe,” Eliot says.  
“We don’t have a safe,” Avery says, looking at Eliot.  
“That you know of,” Eliot points out. Avery narrows her eyes at him.  
“I’m pretty sure my mom would’ve told me if we had a safe,” Avery says.   
“Humor me,” Eliot says, nodding to Parker to go check. Parker nods back and heads to the living room. “Come on let’s begin in your mom’s room.”  
Avery nods her head, taking a deep breath and leading Eliot up the stairs. She enters her mothers’ room and stops in the middle of the room. Eliot stops just inside the doorway and looks around. He sees the mess in front of the closet from the fight between Avery and the four guys. He takes a step towards the dresser to begin looking hearing the crunch of glass. Eliot steps back and looks down, seeing glass on the floor and a broken picture frame. He takes in the surrounding area and notices nothing else is broken in this side of the room. He looks over at Avery who is beginning to search in the closet.  
“Looks like they broke a picture,” Eliot says watching her. Avery freezes, tensing up. Eliot picks up the broken picture frame and looks at the picture, one of Avery and an older woman, most likely her mother. “Or something else happened?”  
“Yeah, I guess,” Avery says, not looking back at Eliot. Eliot narrows his eyes.  
“Yeah you guess they broke it or yeah you guess something else happened?” Eliot asks.  
“Does it matter?” Avery asks, giving up looking in the closet and finally turning to look at Eliot. Eliot shrugs his shoulders and holds out the picture for Avery to take. Avery stares at it, feeling her emotions begin to rise up again. Eliot takes a step closer to Avery, still holding out the picture. Avery reluctantly grabs it and stares at the picture.   
“Wanna talk about it?” Eliot asks, taking a seat on the bed. Avery continues to stare at the picture. “Ave?”  
Avery looks up, not expecting Eliot to call her by a nickname. Eliot watches her for a minute, waiting for her to answer. Avery bites her cheek, thinking. She takes a deep breath.  
“I…” she begins, but doesn’t know what to say. Eliot waits her out patiently. “I just…”  
Suddenly, Parker shows up in the room.  
“Hey guys!” she yells. Avery and Eliot jump and Eliot gives Parker an annoyed look.  
“Seriously Parker?” Eliot growls. Parker looks confused but shrugs it off.  
“I didn’t find anything downstairs,” Parker says.  
“Alright, let’s start looking up here,” Eliot says, continuing to look around the room. Parker leaves the two of them in the bedroom and Parker goes over into Avery’s room next door. Avery begins looking in the dresser while Eliot starts looking around the bed. Not finding anything, Eliot moves over to the closet.  
“I already checked in there,” Avery says, not looking up. Eliot looks over at her.  
“I figured I’d check again, see if I catch anything you might not of known to look for,” Eliot says, looking back at the closet only to have Parker jump out at him shouting ‘Boo’. Eliot flings himself back, bringing up his hands, stopping himself when he realizes it’s Parker.   
“Dammit Parker!” Eliot growls at her. Avery begins laughing hysterically. “You could’ve gotten hurt!”  
“Avery thought it was funny,” Parker points out. Eliot growls.  
“Of course she did,” Eliot growls, looking over at a hysterically laughing Avery. “You can stop anytime now.”  
Avery tries to control her laughter as she makes her way to Eliot and Parker. Unfortunately, she is unable to do so quick enough and trips over a board on the floor and falls down. Eliot snorts.  
“You all right?” he asks.   
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Avery asks, looking back to see what she tripped on, “There’s a loose board.”  
Avery looks at the board quizzically, not remembering seeing it before. The fight and banging around earlier probably knocked it loose, she thought to herself. She tries pushing it back it as Eliot and Parker come over to check it out themselves. Instead of pushing back into place, the whole board moves. Avery raises her eyebrows and this time, instead of pushing it, she pulls it up to reveal a hideaway. Setting the board off to the side, Avery looks up at Eliot. Eliot kneels down and reaches in to the hole, pulling out a pile of papers.  
“What is it?” Parker asks. Eliot glances behind him briefly before looking through the papers.   
“I think…” Eliot says, still looking at the papers, “It’s what we’re looking for.”  
Avery crawls over next to Eliot and peers over his shoulder to look at the papers herself as Parker practically leans on the back of Eliot to do the same. Eliot glares at Parker out of the corner of his eye.   
“Parker, get off,” Eliot says.  
“But I want to read it too,” Parker says.  
“You can, just not while lying on top of me,” Eliot says, trying to bump Parker off with his shoulders. Parker ignores him and continues to read over his shoulder. “Parker!”  
“Fine,” Parker says, “Why do you always have to be so cranky?”  
“Why do you always have to be so annoying?” Eliot counters, getting to his feet.  
“Come on, we need to get these to Nate,” Eliot adds, leading the two out of the room. 

 

“So, now all we have to do is get these to the police right?” Avery asks back at the hotel room. They had brought the papers to Nate and he and the rest of the team had been reading through them.   
“Looks like it,” Nate says, scanning over the rest of the papers.   
“So we got him? Eli Grate’s going to jail?” Avery asks, not wanting to hope too much.  
“Yeah, we got him,” Nate says, looking up at Avery.   
“Good,” Avery says, letting out a sigh. Suddenly, Avery’s cell phone rings and she checks the caller ID. Rolling her eyes, she puts it back in her pocket.  
“You’re not going to get that?” Parker asks.  
“No,” Avery says bluntly. Eliot glances over at her.  
“Who was it?” he asks.  
“Carrie,” Avery answers, huffing.  
“I should be getting you home,” Eliot says, grabbing his keys.  
“Can’t I just stay here?” Avery says, almost whining. Sophie smiles to herself, glancing at Nate who is trying not to chuckle.  
“Sorry Ave, no can do,” Eliot says, guiding her to the door. Avery sighs in defeat and heads out the door to Eliot’s car.


	6. Chapter 6

Eliot pulls into the driveway in front of Carrie’s home and puts the car in to park. Avery is still staring out the window, as she’d been the whole car ride, and sighs to herself. Eliot leans back in his seat and sighs himself before looking over at Avery.  
“Ya know, she’s doing everything she can,” Eliot says to her. Avery shrugs her shoulders. Eliot tries a different approach. “Listen, if you could stay with us, I’d let you but you can’t. Why would you want to stay with a bunch of thieves anyways?”  
“Ya know, when I was little, my mom took me out at night. She brought a blanket and her and I would lay out on top of it and stare at the stars. It was our thing ya know? One night, I must’ve been six or seven, we saw a shooting star and my mom said that when you see a shooting star you’re supposed to make a wish. That you couldn’t tell anyone because then it wouldn’t come true. So I did,” Avery says. Eliot looks at her confused.  
“Why are you telling me this?” he asks.  
“Because my wish never changed Eliot. I saw a shooting star two other times in my life, the last only being a year ago. I always wished that I would meet my dad,” Avery says, her eyes glistening.  
“I thought you said if you told it wouldn’t come true?” Eliot says.  
“What does it matter?” Avery scoffs, “It’s not gonna come true anyways. I’m never gonna meet my dad.”  
“Ave,” Eliot begins but stops, not knowing what to say.  
“Ya know, a part of me kinda wishes you were my dad. But, we all know that would never happen,” Avery says, tears welling up in her eyes. “Thanks for the ride.”  
Avery opens the door and climbs out of the car. Shutting the door behind her, Avery jogs up the steps and in to the house. Eliot sighs to himself, feeling his eyes stinging.   
“Dammit!” he shouts, slamming his hands into the steering wheel. 

 

Avery walks in to the living room looking depressed. Carrie is sitting in the arm chair talking to a man sitting across from her, but Avery doesn’t notice him. Avery begins to head back to her room when Carrie’s voice stops her.  
“Avery, sweety, how’s the search going for the information your mom found?” Carrie asks.  
“Fine, we actually found it,” Avery says, not turning around. She didn’t want Carrie to see her red eyes.   
“Do…you have it with you?” Carrie asks hesitantly.  
“No, Eliot has it,” Avery says, a little confused at the question. She turns around and finally notices the guy sitting on the couch. “Um…hi?”  
“Avery, you’ve heard of Eli Grate,” Carrie says and the man stands up with a cocky smirk on his face. Avery’s eyes grow big at hearing the name.  
“You…you let my mom die,” Avery says. It wasn’t a question, she already knew the answer.  
“Well, not really,” Eli says.  
“You said you were going to help her and then you pretended to give her the treatment,” Avery accuses angrily.  
“Well, yes, but I didn’t let her die,” Grate says and Avery glares at him, ready to argue, but Grate continues offhandedly, “I killed her. Or…had her killed. Whatever.”  
“Wh…what?” Avery says, forcing the words out around a lump in her throat that had formed.  
“Well, we couldn’t very well, let her take those papers to the police. We had to do something,” Grate says.  
“We?” Avery says, backing up as Eli walks towards her.  
“Yes, me and my sister,” Eli says, pointing to Carrie. A horrified expression crosses Avery’s face as she looks at Carrie.  
“But..you…” she stumbles out.  
“I got half the cut. No way was I turning that down,” Carrie says confidently. Avery forces a swallow.  
“Now, here’s what’s going to happen,” Eli Grate says, “You’re going to come with us and then we’re going to make a little phone call to your friend Eliot. From what Carrie’s told me, the two of you have gotten quite close and I’m pretty sure he’ll bring the papers for your safety.”  
“There’s no way in hell I’m going with you,” Avery says.  
“That’s what I thought you’d say,” Grate says, raising an arm and hitting her square in the face. The next thing Avery sees is blackness.

 

Eliot walks in to the hotel room and sees only Nate sitting at the table with a drink in his hand. Eliot looks around but there aren’t any clues as to where the other three have gone to. Eliot grabs a beer for himself and sits down next to Nate, leaning back and propping his feet on another chair, crossing them at the ankles. Nate stares in to his cup waiting for Eliot to say anything, but he doesn’t.  
“You talk to her?” Nate asks.  
“Yeah…,” Eliot says.  
“You tell her what you should tell her?” Nate asks, finally looking over at Eliot.  
“I was going to, but she walked off before I could,” Eliot says.  
“Sounds to me like you’re making excuses,” Nate says, calling him out. Anger flashes in Eliot’s eyes.  
“Why would I make excuses Nate?” Eliot asks angrily. Nate looks in to his cup again and swirls his drink.  
“Eliot, I’ve known you for a long time,” Nate says. Eliot looks over at him, wondering where this is going. “You don’t scare easily, let alone get terrified but…you are terrified now.”  
“I’m not…” Eliot starts, but Nate cuts him off.  
“Of course you are. You’ve always been on your own. It even took you awhile to get used to trusting us. Now, you have a daughter and you have no clue what to do. You like having a plan and you like being in control and right now, you have anything but that. So you put it off hoping something will come to you,” Nate says. Eliot looks away, fingering his beer bottle.  
“Nate, what do I do?” Eliot asks. Nate shakes his head.  
“Like I’ve said Eliot, I can’t tell you that. But something tells me you’ve already made up your mind as to what you want to do,” Nate says. Eliot looks over at Nate, their eyes meeting. Eliot’s phone begins to rings and her pulls it out of his pocket, looking down at the caller ID. His eyebrows scrunch in confusion.  
“Avery? Why are you calling again?” Eliot asks, hoping the kid didn’t get herself into trouble again.  
“Eliot,” a man’s deep voice comes over the phone. Eliot’s face hardens.  
“Who is this?” he asks icily.   
“My name’s Eli Grate. And I think I have something here that you want,” the man says cockily. Eliot is furious. Nate watches, wondering what is happening on the phone.  
“If you’ve so much as touched her…” Eliot growls.   
“Oh, don’t worry, she’ll be fine. As long as I get those papers you’ve found by midnight,” Eli says, “And don’t think I’m above harming a kid if it means I’ll get what I want.”  
Eliot growls and the phone disconnects. Eliot slams his phone shut and shoves it in his pocket, standing up from the chair and setting the beer bottle down harshly.  
“Eliot, what’s wrong?” Nate asks.  
“Eli’s got Avery,” Eliot growls, turning around and heading out the door. Nate gets on the coms to call in the other three as he quickly follows after him.


	7. Chapter 7

The first thing Avery felt was what felt like a college band at the championship game pounding in her head. The next thing she felt were her hands bound behind her back and a chair underneath her. Avery slowly opens her eyes, the light making her squint. She licks her lips, tasting blood. She feels more blood crusted on her upper lip and chin. She furrows her eyebrows in confusion. Oh, right. The asshole punched me. But I shouldn’t be feeling this out of it. There is a noise and a door opens to her right. Avery looks over and sees Eli Grate saunter in, shutting the door behind him.  
“Oh, good. You’re up,” he says in a booming voice. Avery flinches at the loud noise. “My apologies. You hit your head on the table on your way down.”  
“You mean…when you punched me?” Avery says, trying to keep the steel in her voice, but the headache was mind-numbing.   
“Details, details. I’ve called your friend and I’m sure he’s on his way here with my papers,” Eli says confidently.  
“You better hope not,” Avery says.   
“No,” Grate corrects, “You better hope he is.”  
There is a knock at the door and it opens hesitantly. An annoyed expression appears on Grate’s face before he turns to see who has interrupted him. A smaller man with brown hair enters the room, giving Grate a hesitant look.  
“What Mark?” Eli says aggravated. Avery looks at the man closer and realizes that, in fact, it is one of the men that broke in to her house.  
“Those people you were making that deal with? They’re here,” Mark says.  
“What? Why?” Eli asks, confused.  
“They said something went wrong with the procedure. They need to talk to you,” Mark says. Grate sighs in annoyance before looking back at Avery.  
“We’ll finish this later,” he says, walking back out in to the hallway, saying a few words to someone before his footsteps walk away. Avery squirms in the chair, testing the rope tying her hands together, finding they are tied tight.  
“Dammit,” she mutters to herself. She begins wondering who the people are that needed to talk to Grate as she again, tries to loosen her bonds. “I am so screwed.”

 

Avery lets out an exasperated growl. It had only been ten minutes, but she had been trying to loosen the rope the whole time, only succeeding in making her wrists raw. They had started to bleed a few minutes ago and Avery had finally given up on any hope they’d loosen even a miniscule amount. There is a noise coming from the door and Avery looks up, trying to hear what is going on. She realizes someone must’ve approached the guards because they are talking to someone. Suddenly, there is a loud bang, thumps, and muted grunts. Avery waits and listens, trying to figure out what is going on. Everything goes quite on the other side of the door. Avery doesn’t have to wait long when the door opens and Eliot slides inside. He looks over at her and takes in her appearance, quickly making his way over to her, kneeling down in front of her.  
“Dammit Avery. You all right?” he says, untying her legs.  
“‘M hangin’ in there,” Avery says as Eliot moves to her back.  
“Jesus, what happened to you?” Eliot asks seeing her wrists and adding them to the list of her injuries.  
“Stupid ropes wouldn’t loosen,” Avery explains, closing her eyes to the growing headache. Eliot unties her hands and helps her stand up, checking her over quickly.   
“You sure you’re all right?” he asks, studying her spacey expression.   
“He hit you?” Eliot asks, looking at the dried blood on her face.  
“Yeah,” Avery replies, “Said I hit my head too.”  
“Where?” Eliot asks, not seeing anything on her forehead. Avery shrugs, finding talking hurt too much. Eliot moves her head to get a better look at the back and sees a cut and dried blood there as well. Avery gets dizzy and the sudden movement and grabs a hold of Eliot’s shirt to steady herself. Eliot gives her a look, but realizes they can’t do anything here, so guides her towards the door.   
As they enter the hallway, they literally run into Nate and Sophie. They seem out of breath as if they had been running. Eliot gives them a curious look and Sophie looks behind them, letting out a yelp. Eliot turns to look, seeing Eli Grate with a gun in his hand, accompanied by Carrie. He reflexively shoves Avery and the others behind him.  
“I guess I was right that you’d come,” Eli says to Eliot, “We didn’t realize you were all in on this together though. You almost had us.”  
Eliot glowers at them, doing everything but actually growling. Eli grins cockily at him, thinking he has won.   
“Give me. The papers,” Eli says, starting to get angry at the lack of action. Nate sighs, but maneuvers his way around Eliot, setting his briefcase on the ground. Eliot glares at him.  
“Nate,” he growls.  
“There’s nothing else to do,” Nate says, kicking the briefcase so it slides over to Eli. Eli nods to Carrie to pick it up and she does so while Eli keeps the gun trained on them. Backing up with a smirk on their face, Eli and Carrie quickly escape leaving the thieves standing in the hallway.   
“Why would you do that? Now we they’ll get away,” Avery says angry, glaring at the three of them. The door Eli just escaped from opens and Hardison and Parker walk in. Nate looks over at them.  
“Everything set?” Nate asks.  
“Yeah,” Hardison says with a grin.  
“Cops don’t take a hysterical woman yelling about a bomb in a trunk very lightly,” Parker says, smiling herself. Avery looks at the team quizzically.   
“I’m confused,” she says, looking to Eliot. Eliot grins and Avery’s eyes grow wide. “Oh, I get it.”  
“Ha-ha, that’s my girl,” Eliot says, earning a confused look from Avery and a knowing look from Nate and Sophie. Eliot realizes what he has just said and quickly changes the subject. “Let’s get outta here.”  
Eliot guides Avery towards the door with the rest of the team following after them. Parker and Hardison fall behind a little. Parker looks over at Hardison curiously.  
“Why did Eliot call Avery his girl?” Parker asks, confused at the statement.  
“Don’t worry about it Parker,” Hardison says.  
“How come everyone else seems to know but not me?” Parker asks sulkily. Hardison stops and looks at her, sighing. He looks back at the group and sees they are already heading out to the cars.   
“Avery’s Eliot’s daughter Parker,” Hardison says.   
“Oh,” Parker says, beginning to walk out the door then stops, the statement hitting her. She looks back at Hardison who nods his head. “Oh. Well, that explains everything.”  
Hardison shakes his head and follows after Parker, both of them climbing into Nate and Sophie’s car, leaving Eliot and Avery in the other one.


	8. Chapter 8

Eliot pulls the car into the parking spot next to where Nate had parked his car. He shuts off the engine and looks over at Avery, seeing her staring out her window. She had been quiet the whole car ride, seeming almost depressed. Eliot looks out his own window, watching the people drive by on the road.   
“What’s going on in that pretty little head of yours?” Eliot asks, looking back over at her. Avery shrugs, not looking in his direction. Eliot just sits and watches her, willing to wait her out. Avery senses his intentions and sighs.  
“I’ve got nowhere to go,” she says around a lump in her throat, “I have no family left. CPS’ll prolly come take me and I’ll end up in some stupid foster home.”  
Eliot looks back out his window and silently comes to a decision. He couldn’t let that happen to her and after this job, he’s realized she has a tendency to get into trouble. It’s safer for her if she’s with him.  
“Ave, we need to talk,” he says, looking back over at her. Avery looks over at him, eyes glistening, giving him a confused look.  
“About what?” she asks. Eliot looks out the windshield then back at her.  
“You’re daddy,” he says. Avery’s eyebrows furrow.  
“What’s there to talk about? I don’t know who he is and he doesn’t even know I exist. It’s not like I can go live with him,” Avery says. Eliot sighs.  
“Actually, you do know who he is and he, now, knows that you exist,” Eliot says getting another confused look from him, “And you can come live with me.”  
“Wh…You’re my dad?” Avery asks, studying him, silently pleading that this isn’t some sort of joke.  
“Yeah,” Eliot answers.  
“How? When?” Avery asks, shock not allowing her to finish her sentences.  
“I had Hardison look at your birth certificate back when you stayed at my place,” Eliot says, “I dated your mom before I went…well, where I had to go.”  
Avery watches him for a moment until what he says hits her. Her eyes narrow.  
“You knew last week?” she asks angrily, “And you never told me?”  
“I didn’t know if it would be safe for you,” Eliot explains, “My job before I went with Nate…I made a lot of enemies and they’re dangerous. More dangerous than you could imagine. I didn’t need to put you in more danger than you should’ve been…even if I did want you with me.”  
Avery looks back out her window, feeling the tears well up. She tries to control her emotions before asking the next question.  
“Why are you telling me now then?” she asks, still looking out her window. Eliot watches her for a minute.  
“Because first off, I can’t put you in that much more danger than you do yourself. Secondly, there’s no way I’m letting you get bounced around between foster homes. And third? You’re my daughter,” Eliot says, watching her for any signs. “I know it’s late, but I want us to be a family.”  
Avery stares out the window, feeling the tears begin to fall. She closes her eyes and, instead of turning to Eliot, opens the door and exits the vehicle, shutting the door behind her. Eliot watches her climb out and head to the back of the car, wiping her face as she does so. He climbs out of his seat as well, shutting the door behind him and taking a few steps towards her, but still giving her space. Avery takes a deep stuttering breath and turns to look at him.  
“Tell me this isn’t a joke,” she pleads.   
“This isn’t a joke,” he says seriously, “No way would I joke about this.”  
Avery sniffs and runs over, giving Eliot a huge hug. Eliot returns the hug, feeling her tears soak into his shirt and finds it hard to keep his own at bay. Avery wipes her face on Eliot’s shirt and pulls away looking up at him.  
“Does this mean you’ll teach me how to drive?” she asks. Eliot chuckles.  
“Yeah, I’ll teach you how to drive,” Eliot answers, smiling. Avery returns his smile.  
“Can I drive the challenger?” Avery asks innocently.   
“Ha-ha, that’s cute,” Eliot says, walking away towards the hotel room.  
“Does that mean a yes?” Avery calls out, running after him.

 

Nate and Sophie turn from the hotel window, having been watching Eliot and Avery from their room. Sophie has a grin on her face, happy about the turn of events. Nate smirks to himself, looking over at Sophie.  
“I think I’ve finally understood that country song I heard the other day,” Sophie says. Nate gives her a curious look.  
“What country song?” he asks, “And when do you listen to country?”  
“Avery had it playing,” Sophie says off-handedly, “I’m not sure what it’s called but it talks about boys who are tough and how when they’ve become dads to little girls they turn into big babies.”  
Sophie smiles at Nate and walks towards the main room, knowing their lives are going to be a lot different now. Nate watches her leave but then follows after her, the two of them entering the main room at the same time to raised voices.  
“Parker, she really doesn’t need all of this,” Eliot says, handing the bag back to her, then turning to Hardison, “No, she does not need to watch your geek movies.”  
“What if she’s not around any of us huh?” Parker asks.  
“I’m just saying Eliot, if she’s gonna be around, I’m going to have to educate her on the finer things in life,” Hardison says at the same time.  
“The only person educating her other than school, is me,” Eliot argues.  
“Really?” Hardison asks, “Because you know everything about electronics? Oh yeah, that’s right, you can push the little on button.”  
“Hardison,” Eliot warns.  
“How about lock picking? Can I teach her that?” Parker asks.  
“No, Parker,” Eliot says exasperatedly.  
“Ooh, that sounds cool,” Avery says excitedly.  
“You don’t need to learn how to pick locks,” Eliot says to her over her shoulder.  
“Do you know how to download music and movies?” Avery asks Hardison.  
“Girl, I could get the new The Fast and Furious movie before it’s even in theatres,” Hardison says proudly.  
“Dammit Hardison!” Eliot yells.  
Nate rolls his eyes and, ignoring the bickering “siblings”, walks out the door. Okay, so maybe not all that different Sophie thinks, smiling to herself, following after Nate.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There will be a sequel to this just as I get time to post it. Thanks to everyone who has been reading and following this story! And for all of the reviews! Oh, and for those of you wondering what song Sophie is talking about, it’s called, “Tough Little Boys” by Gary Allen. 

**Author's Note:**

> Please review! Love hearing from you guys!


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